"Contact Needs A Restraining Order"

Contact is the RPG game many of you have been waiting for with good reason. The current list for crappy RPG games on the DS is longer than Bobby Brown's rap sheet and the people need something good to play. I wouldn't go as far as to call this game the savior of current boredom, but its much better than most.

Story: I'm sure many of you have heard about the story, you play as yourself. You pop the game in and an old, balding professor, named "The Professor", contacts you (hence the title) and tells you that he needs your help. He recruits a young boy named Terry and the three of you team up to help the geezer round up cells he needs to fix his scuttled space ship. The Prof is the narrator, you're the "watcher" and Terry does all of the work. At least thats what everyone that plays this game wants you to believe.

Gameplay: You'll keep hearing that you don't control Terry, truth is you control everything he does except for the precise action of attack. You press the "B" button or tap on the character you want to attack, then select the "attack" icon. If you're close enough Terry will attack at his own will until you take him out of attack mode by pressing "B" or the enemy target is dead. You don't directly control his attacks, but everything else is done by you. The gameplay is reminiscent Diablo's dungeon point n' click, hack n' slash gameplay which can get extremely tedious at times. This is only made worst by not being able to control Terry's attacks, sometimes you will find yourself getting a drink or going to the bathroom while engaging a hostile.

One of my favorite things about this game is the menu interface. Its extremely easy to use and by selecting an item you are blessed with a description of what it is, how much health it heals, its stats, etc. Another beautiful thing about the menu is that all the items are put into categories: weapons, food and misc items. You will never run out of space in your inventory because each category gets 90 spaces to hold each specific item. You'll never need that many weapons around and you won't be able to keep that much food around for very long before you chow down.

Although cooking your own food isn't a new implementation in videogames, its still something I love doing. You don't have to cook or eat food to sustain your hunger, food is used only as a health supplement. You will need certain clothes for the ability to cook ( as well as to fish and pick locks) and higher skills to cook higher more appetizing and effective dishes. However, they couldn't leave well enough alone and added a digestion period. There is a stomach icon which shows how full your stomach is, certain foods are more filling and take longer for you to poo poo out (not literally). Some foods can take up to 10 minutes for you to digest which is a real pain when you're desperate for a health jolt and you will need that pick me up more than 50 Cent needs a bullet proof vest.

Difficulty: Repent your sins, because you will die in this game. This game is hard and you'll get to know St. Peter quite well while you struggle from room to room killing enemies. Occasionally you can be lucky enough to find a save point and restore your HP, but there is never enough to guarantee a safe passage, which is good. The enemies respawn if you leave the room, but its the best way to raise your stats. If you do happen to die, you will be resurrected back to the Prof's ship and get to start back out again. You will lose 10% of your current fame, but thats the only sacrifice you will have to make and it is a small one. Everything you've found, acquired or done to have further the story will stay with you, which is very generous of the game. Contact is quite hard, but its also very forgiving. You will spend a lot of time fighting the same enemies over and over again to beef up your character to achieve victory over the boss of that stage. This can be a real pain with the repetitive gameplay.

Stats: Stats are, of course, a very important feature in any RPG game. This game has 26 stats stuffed into your character. You hone your skills by using them like you would in Morrowind and certain equipped weapons will also effect your stats in positive and negative ways. Instead of getting armor, shoes or amulets to increase your stats like so many other RPGs do, you will be blessed with "decals". These are stickers that can be used to raise stats, safely capture crystals, teleport you back to the ship or call the Prof's dog "Mochi" to do some damage to enemies.

Graphics: Not much to say about them, this game's look pays homage to the games of the SNES era. The top screen looks more cartoony, like Earthbound and the bottom screen looks slightly more realistic, like Super Mario RPG.

Sound: Nothing special about the sound, it has the usual track loop that most handheld game bestow on us. At least the music changes around when you battle or change areas. Go ahead and turn the sound off, you won't miss anything.

Multiplayer: Yes, this game does have wifi, but its not what you think. No one seems to embrace the DS' online capabilities but Nintendo and a few other companies. The developers could have given this game wifi with co-op, deathmatch or something better than what we are stuck with. Let me explain how wifi works: you have to get someone's friend code, you have to give that person yours, you then have to be on wifi at the same time and connect with each other. After thats done, you then go back to the single player game, haul ship to "Wifi Island", track down the person you connected with in a cave (they're represented by a non playable character) and they'll give you an item. The first few times you give into the urge to try this, it might cross your mind as something cool. Once you see all the trouble you went through for the second rate, thrift shop items you receive, you'll think otherwise. Sometimes you will run into a surly NPC who will kill you. All of that trouble for a jar of spilt milk and sour grapes.

Pros:
Huge inventory.
The whole aspect of cooking.
Something new for the DS.
Kinda short.
Difficulty, this game isn't for babies.

Cons:
Difficulty, this game isn't for babies.
Graphics could be better.
Tedious gameplay.

Overall: I was really looking forward to this game, but I'm not impressed. Its not that its bad, its just mediocre. Its worth a buy, just not at full price. Pick this up used or on sale for $20.

5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/06